Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The issue of carers needs to be considered in its own right. The means test is a huge issue. There are calls to abolish it and I understand the rationale behind the calls. However, I can hear the alarms bells ringing in Government Buildings and in the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform. In a situation like this, the income thresholds need to be increased. The Minister has been doing this by raising the income thresholds quite considerably and I want to compliment her on it. We need a continued progression. Perhaps then when we get to a certain level we will see that there are so few people above this threshold that we can abolish the means test. If that were to happen over a period of four or five years I could live with it. Sometimes in the big-bang approach, there can be unintended consequences. My memory is that when this committee was set up in 2020, it recommended €500 and €1,000. We got €450 and €900. I would love to think that we could go another step next year and keep going.

It can be very difficult in that every time we ask for data on what means testing change costs, we never get it. However, what we do know is that when the fuel allowance was dramatically increased, it did not require the amount of extra expenditure that had been anticipated. I have a feeling that many of the other changes I have suggested would not cost a lot and would indeed decrease over time.

Many people care for children who become adults. For these people caring for a very long time we have to take the social desirability of this into account, where possible, and make it affordable. It is very hard to beat the loving care of a family member. Carers need time and space but they also need means to be able to give that time and space. We need to move in that direction. There are much wider social policy issues involved than just means testing. Recent events have shown that the Irish people have ideas on this that politicians did not anticipate fully.